gratts99 Wrote:if theres a heaven.. i dont think there would be a VIP room for "true worshippers" or any special treatments.
That would be like go®d coming down from the stage and asking tonyzzz that he couldnt sit so close because he doesnt listen to the hip everyday. He only listens every sunday. Isnt religion about believing, not about frequency?
hmmm interesting point, only problem I see with it is that you've assumed people (vip's or whomever) go to heaven when they die. Unfortunatley the scriptures disagree with that myth that all people go to heaven when they die, and bad people go to hell. I could go on and on about it but I'll sum it up in a few points:
1) If people go to heaven when they die, how come Jesus' friend Lazarus didnt when he died? He was subsequently resurrected by Jesus later, and Jesus also said that he "fell asleep in death" not that he was up in the clouds with wings on his back for eternity. (Read John chapter 11)
2) I also refer you to Psalms 37:11 and 37:29- "But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, And they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace." (29)- The righteous themselves will possess the earth, And they will reside FOREVER upon it." How could this be so if everyone is up in heaven? Because it sure wont be the people here on earth right now. Only a small few..(Mat. 7:13,14)
3) If all who die go to heaven, then why did Jesus have to be resurrected? Wouldnt he have gone anyways?
4)The Bible states that when a person dies, "the spirit itself returns to the true God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 12:7) Does this mean that a spirit entity literally travels through space into God's presence? No, the way in which the Bible uses the word "returns" does not require an actual movement from one place to another. For instance, unfaithful Israelites were told: "'Return to me, and I will return to you,' God of armies has said." (Malachi 3:7) Israel's 'returning' to God meant a turning around from a wrong course and again conforming to God's righteous way. And God's 'returning' to Israel meant his turning favorable attention to his people once again. In both cases the "return" involved an attitude, not a literal displacement from one geographic location to another.
Similarly, at death no actual movement from the earth to the heavenly realm occurs when the spirit "returns" to God. Once the life-force is gone from a person, only God has the ability to restore it to him. So the spirit "returns to the true God" in the sense that any hope of future life for that person now rests entirely with God.
Consider, what the Scriptures say about Jesus Christ's death. The Gospel writer Luke relates: "Jesus called with a loud voice and said: 'Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.' When he had said this, he expired." (Luke 23:46) As Jesus' spirit went out of him, he was not literally on his way to heaven. Jesus was not resurrected from the dead until the third day, and it was 40 days later that he ascended to heaven. (Acts 1:3, 9) At the time of his death, however, Jesus confidently left his spirit in his Father's hands, fully trusting in God's ability to bring him back to life.
5) The Bible also clearly states the condition of the dead in several places, Ecclesiastes 9:5,6 says:
For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten. 6 Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they have no portion anymore to time indefinite in anything that has to be done under the sun. Or Eccl 3: 19,20..19 For there is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit, so that there is no superiority of the man over the beast, for everything is vanity. 20 All are going to one place. They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust. Or Psalm 146:4..His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground;
In that day his thoughts do perish
should I keep going??
